2010 President

KATHLEEN McCORMAC, BSN, JD, is the principal for McCormac & Associates in San Francisco devoting her practice to employment discrimination. She represents individuals in work place harassment and discrimination claims based on gender, race, and disability. She is a frequent speaker on employment discrimination and past president of the Northern California TAANA Chapter.

President Elect

EDIE BROUS, BSN, MSN, MPH, JD, is currently in private practice as a consultant and teaches seminars on legal aspects of practice and documentation. Her legal background is in litigation, medical malpractice defense, licensure representation and pharmaceutical class action. Her nursing background is OR, ER, Hyperbaric Oxygen, ICU, education and management. She has a Master's degree in critical care nursing and public health.

Treasurer

KATHY ANNE MANCUSI, RN, JD, is an attorney engaged in the practice of elder law, nursing and allied health practitioner licensure law, estate planning, healthcare law, and healthcare risk management. She has had thirteen years of experience handling health and hospital law and medical malpractice issues, first as inhouse counsel for a hospital group, and later, as a staff attorney for an insurance company. She is admitted to practice law in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. Mancusi was a registered nurse at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC. Ms. Mancusi obtained her law degree from Catholic University of America School of Law in Washington, DC.

Corresponding Secretary

Teressa M. Sanzio, RN, MPA, JD, of The Law Office of Teressa M. Sanzio, P.C. in Phoenix, Arizona, is a sole practitioner, devoting her practice to administrative and regulatory law. She provides professional representation for licensed health care providers including nurses, nurse practitioners, behavioral health practitioners, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nursing home administrators, pharmacists, and osteopaths. She also practices in the area of medical malpractice litigation. In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Teressa holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, and an Associate's Degree in Nursing. Teressa's nursing background is ER and ICU. Prior to becoming an attorney, Teressa worked as a Legal Nurse Consultant, a Risk Management Consultant, and a Nurse Specialist in Quality Resource Management.

Teressa has been an active member of TAANA for several years and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of TAANA. Teressa is also a member of the Executive Council of the Administrative Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, holding leadership roles from 2003 to present, including president of the council. Teressa has a passion for representing and educating nurses. She speaks locally and nationally on the subject of disciplinary defense of nurses. Teressa is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of Arizona, and in the United States Supreme Court.

Recording Secretary

PHYLLIS M GALLAGHER, BA, MA, JD, represents registered nurses before the various boards in the Department of Consumer Affairs in California. She also practices in the area of probate and conservatorship law, wills, and trusts in her private law practice. Gallagher also is an adjunct faculty member at Azusa Pacific University on Bioethics and Nursing Issues to graduate and undergraduate students. She received her nursing diploma from St. Mary School of Nursing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her JD from Loyola Law School. Gallagher has been a very active member of TAANA for many years, and she currently serves as the Southern California Chapter President.

Immediate Past President

ROSEMARY CONLON McCARTHY, MS, JD, is a solo practitioner in Houston, Texas concentrating her practice in healthcare malpractice and toxic tort litigation. Her current practice on a part-time basis as in-house counsel for Shell Oil Company managing the vinyl chloride monomer docket utilizes her twenty years of litigation experience and thirty-four years in nursing.

Ms. McCarthy is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of Texas, in both the Southern and Eastern Federal District Courts of Texas, in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States and in the United States Supreme Court. She also maintains active professional nursing licenses in Texas and New York. She graduated cum laude from South Texas College of Law after receiving a Master of Science degree from Texas Women's University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Niagara University.

She is on the faculty of the College of Nursing at Houston Baptist University as an Associate Professor teaching graduate students in the Healthcare Administration program in the areas of Healthcare Jurisprudence and Ethics and Health Policy. Ms. McCarthy also coordinates a course concerning Vulnerable Populations for the undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students.

Ms. McCarthy currently serves on the Board of Directors of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys and is a past president of the Texas chapter of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys. She is a member of the boards of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association and the Texas Nurses Association, District 9. Ms. McCarthy is also a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, the Texas Nurses Association and the American Nurses Association.

Director

TONIA AIKEN, RN, JD, serves as a nurse attorney in fields of medical negligence and nursing disciplinary actions. She is a national educator, author and speaker on legal and ethical issues in healthcare. She is the president and co-founder of Nurse Attorney Institute, LLC and provides educational and consultant services to healthcare providers on legal and ethical topics, conflict management, and creates legal nurse consulting programs, seminars, training, and resource materials.

Director

GERTRUDE A. KIAUNIS, RN, JD is with Koskoff, Koskoff, and Bieder in Bridgeport, CT. 

Director

DIANE WARLICK, RN, BSN, JD, is a nurse attorney with more than 25 years experience in health and nursing law and many other aspects of law practice. She currently practices law in Dallas, Texas. In partnership with Tonia Aiken, RN, JD, a noted nurse attorney, she founded the Nurse Attorney Institute, LLC. Warlick has focused on nursing and healthcare issues and has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in malpractice litigation, health care providers in regulatory and disciplinary standards and procedures. She was a founder and second president of TAANA and a member of the Board of Directors for more than ten years. She has given numerous presentations and lectures to nurses and written for professional journals and nursing law textbooks.

Director

NANCY A. HOFFMAN, RN, JD

Director

RANDI KOPF, RN, MS, JD, of Kopf HealthLaw, LLC, in Rockville, Maryland, has a general health law practice with a focus in corporate and administrative law, e-health, and e-law. Ms. Kopf earned degrees from Cornell University (BS); State University of New York at Stony Brook, School of Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) (BS & MS), and a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law. She is a nationally sought after conference and Bar Association speaker on medical legal topics. In addition, Ms. Kopf has held instructor and faculty positions at Georgetown, University of Maryland, and Adelphi University. She is a frequent contributor to professional journals and publications and has authored The Nursing Handbook of Physical Assessment, Before You Sign... Managed Care Contracts for Health Care Providers; made significant contributions to PAHCOM's published Compliance Program Guide; served as contributor and editor of TAANA's Business and Legal Guidebook for Nurse Practitioners.

Ms. Kopf has served the organization as Chair for the Chapter Presidents Council; Chair of the Electronic Communications Section; Co-Chair for the Eastern Seaboard Nurse Attorney Meeting; Board Liaison for the Student Section; and Team Leader for Speakers for the 2007 Annual Conference. Ms. Kopf has served as past President of the Chesapeake Nurse Attorneys.

Randi Kopf serves on the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission Peer Review Panel and participated with Maryland's Health Care Commission's EDI/HIPAA Task Force. Ms. Kopf served as Chair for the Health Law section of the Montgomery County Bar Association. She has been awarded TAANA's 2007 Outstanding Health Law, Legislative & Compliance Section Member Award, TAANA's 2004 Cynthia Northrop Distinguished Service Award; the Cornell University Alumni Award for Outstanding Volunteerism; the National Distinguished Service Award in Nursing; and was voted a "Super Lawyer" for Maryland and DC in 2007 & 2008.

Director

KATHLEEN MURPHY JONES received a bachelor's degree in Nursing from the American University in Washington D.C. in 1982. She practiced as a registered nurse for 12 years, primarily in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California. During her tenure as a nurse, Kathleen was an active participant in many specialized medical teams that provided care to critically ill patients, such as the trauma team, the heart transplant team, the artificial heart team and the code blue team. She also served as a mentor and as the Staff Developer in the SICU and was responsible for training new nurses. 

In 1993, Kathleen graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law, passing the California bar exam that same year. She began her legal practice in California at the law firm of Neil, Dymott, Perkins, Brown & Frank, specializing in medical malpractice defense litigation. In 1995, she joined the law firm of Harrison, Kemp & Jones in Las Vegas and expanded her practice to include plaintiff medical malpractice, mass tort litigation and catastrophic personal injury cases. In 1997, she became a member of the Nevada State Bar. From 2002 to 2005, Kathleen opened her own firm in Las Vegas, focusing her practice in the area of medical malpractice and nursing licensure. In 2007, Kathleen formed a partnership with her son, Kevin C. Murphy and opened the law offices of Murphy Jones LLP in San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. The firm's current main practice areas are administrative law, particularly nurses and other healthcare practitioners defense in licensing and disciplinary matters.

Kathleen's professional accomplishments have included serving on the board of governors of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, and board of director and past president for two terms of the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys.  In addition to currently serving as a Board of Director of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, she also serves on the State Bar of Nevada Continuing Legal Education Committee. Her community services include board member of the St. Rose Dominican Hospital Foundation, board member and vice president of Poverello House, a non-profit day shelter for the homeless in Nevada, past member and Vice Chairman of the St. Rose Dominican Hospital Medical Ethics Committee, and past member of the Nevada State Bar Fee Dispute Committee.

Kathleen is also an active member of the State Bars of California and Nevada, the Clark County Bar, the San Diego County Bar, and the Nevada Justice Association.